Christ My Song - 34
Strange and mysterious is my life - The inward Warfare
(John Newton/Johannes Thomas Rüegg)
The inward Warfare.
Galatians 5,17.
1. Strange and mysterious is my life,
what opposites I feel within!
A stable peace, a constant strife;
the rule of grace, the power of sin:
too often am I captive led,
yet daily triumph in my Head. PDF - Midi
2. I prize the privilege of prayer,
but, oh! what backwardness to pray!
Though on the Lord I cast my care,
I feel its burden every day;
I seek His will in all I do,
yet find my own is working too.
3. I call the promises my own,
and prize them more than mines of gold;
yet, though their sweetness I have known,
they leave me unimpressed and cold:
one hour upon the truth I feed,
the next I know not what I read.
4. I love the holy day of rest,
when Jesus meets his gathered saints;
sweet day, of all the week the best!
for its return my spirit pants:
yet often, through my unbelief,
it proves a day of guilt and grief.
5. While on my Saviour I rely,
I know my foes shall lose their aim;
and therefore dare their power defy,
assured of conquest through his name:
but soon my confidence is slain,
and all my fears return again.
6. Thus diff'rent powers within me strive,
and grace and sin by turns prevail;
I grieve, rejoice, decline, revive,
and vict'ry hangs in doubtful scale:
but Jesus has his promise passed,
that grace shall overcome at last.
John Newton, Olney Hymns I, Hymn 130.